To cool water in a water tank, one preferred method is to put the loaded tank into the cold chamber of a refrigerator for a few hours. This of course requires a good deal of available space in the refrigerator chamber, the more so if the tank volume is large. Additionally, the conventional grill-work shelves laid therein in horizontal arrangements, are interspaced in successive pairs by relatively small vertical clearances which may not enable free engagement of the water tank unless one shelf is removed--a nuisance.
Those skilled in the art have thus in the past tried to improve the efficiency in space allocation within a refrigerator. Indeed, a refrigerator is usually one of the most expensive--if not the most expensive--of all the household appliances. The retail price of--say--a 18 cubic feet volume refrigerator can be as high as twice the retail price of a 15 cubic feet volume refrigerator. Therefore, the smallest refrigerator for the household needs is certainly desirable from a financial standpoint.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,788,642 issued in 1957 to Bessie and Joseph BURKHEAD, does disclose a combined refrigerator shelf and liquid tank 28 to be removably edgewisely supported by one of the same side support brackets 26 as are used to support the regular grill-work shelves. The tank includes a flat rectangular shelf top wall, for receiving thereon foodstuff. The tank includes a water inlet means 38, 44 and a water outlet 46 extending through a side wall of the refrigerator and provided with a stopcock valve 48 on the outside.
One drawback of the Burkhead water tank is that its water outlet faucet 46 is embedded into one side wall of the refrigerator. This substantially complicates matters when removal of the tank from the refrigerator is required, for example for maintenance purposes.